The present invention relates to a header.
A header is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,478,521 B2, which comprises a middle section disposed on a frame, and at least two side sections disposed on the frame, adjacent the middle section, which enclose a flexible cutter bar and at least one conveyor device disposed downstream of the cutter bar. On each of the side sections, the conveyor device is in the form of at least one endless belt disposed adjacent the middle section in order to transport crop cut by the cutter bar parallel to the longitudinal axis of the header in the direction of the middle section. The middle section is equipped with a belt conveyor which circulates transversely to the longitudinal axis in order to convey the crop transferred from the lateral transverse belt conveyor to a feeder housing of a combine harvester on which the header can be mounted. In the case of this header, the cutter bar and the endless belts of the side sections are carried jointly by float arms which are arranged parallel to one another, lie in a plane, and are mounted on a base frame of the header such that they can rotate about a single common pivot axis in order to enable ground contours to be compensated for via partial deflection of the header.
The disadvantage of this header is that, upon vertical deflection of one or more of the float arms, the belt is pressed in sections in the direction of the base frame because the pivot axis of the float arms is situated at a distance from the belt. The movement of the belt in the horizontal direction caused by the great distance thereof from the pivot axis results in increased wear of the belt. The partial deflection of the belt by the float arm that changes position with respect to the adjacent float arms also makes guidance of the belt difficult since the position of the belt is changed with respect to the rollers by which it is driven and guided, and which extend transversely to the pivot axis of the float arm. The partial deflection of the belt induced by the vertical deflection of one or more float arms causes the belt to become deflected in both the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, whereby the guidance of the belt in this region is negatively affected for the duration of the deflection.